MITERA NICU: Celebrating 40 Years of Service (1979-2019)

The Scientific Meeting organized by the MITERA Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), celebrating its 40-year anniversary, has been completed successfully.

The Scientific Meeting was attended by distinguished Greek and foreign speakers, who covered interesting neonatal topics. Furthermore, Dr. Melpomeni Saklamaki-Kontou, NICU Director and Pediatrician/Neonatologist, gave a detailed review of the MITERA NICU activities over the last 40 years. The NICU neonatal mortality rates were most interesting. Specifically, in 2018, neonatal mortality (i.e. the number of neonatal deaths in the first 28 days of life) dropped to the record rate of 0.38‰ (per-mille). In addition, general survival of neonates born at MITERA Hospital skyrocketed to 99.96%, while survival of neonates hospitalized in the NICU was 99.82%. NICU Director Melpomeni Saklamaki-Kontou also noted that the frequency of neonatal infections in the MITERA NICU is exceptionally low. In the 8 years between 2011 and 2018, there were no deaths recorded from early-onset or late-onset neonatal sepsis out of the 10,400 hospitalized preterm babies or neonates, while no multi-drug resistant bacteria have ever been isolated in the NICU in the 40 years it has been operating.

The MITERA NICU was the first unit of its kind to operate in the area of private healthcare and one of the first ones in Greece. Around 465,000 neonates have been born at MITERA Hospital and more than 82,500 preterm babies or neonates have been hospitalized in the NICU with various conditions. The excellent services provided by neonatologists, obstetricians/gynecologists and associate physicians, who care for their young patients with a deep sense of compassion, have resulted in a remarkable drop in perinatal and neonatal mortality.

The MITERA NICU is a 3-level Unit: Intensive Care Unit, Intermediate Care Unit and Basic Observation. It is equipped with cutting-edge technology and includes 16 conventional ventilators, 3 high-frequency ventilators, devices for provision of inhaled iNO and nasal CPAP, 1 gas analyzer, 1 portable incubator with built-in ventilator for transfer of neonates to other hospitals, monitors, oximeters, pumps for intravenous administration of fluids, negative pressure chamber and special laminar air flow chamber for preparation of parenteral nutrition by specialized pharmacist.